Now I Can
by magdelapetrem
Summary: "But I could have done something," Dee Dee insisted.


So this little side story (to a story I'm working on that I love the direction of and we'll see eventually if it ever gets posted) is kind of a story of how Dee Dee got into the medical gig. I like to think Dee Dee was so focused on the mission in this case that she just wanted to get it done and over with before she concentrated on anything else.

Also, if you feel this writing is kind of simplified, it's because it is. It's supposed to be about Dee Dee, and I couldn't have her thinking like Mandark or Dexter.

* * *

On her latest mission, things were going well. She would just escort a tech guy into a building that was supposedly heavily guarded, the tech dude would put a tiny camera in a corner of a big room, and then they would get out. All this had to be done in less than ten minutes. Dee Dee had no doubt in her mind she could make it in and out without a problem. It hadn't even been her first time infiltrating with another person. She had done it with six people at one point, even! This would be a snap, a piece of cake.

But as she entered the door, something went wrong. A fusion guard saw her, he shot with perfect aim. A sniper fusion. She would have to tell Dexter about it. She dodged the fusion spit easily, leaping out of the way with experienced legs, but the other agent wasn't so lucky. As the spit hit the wall, it splattered on his face. Dee Dee watched him hiss in pain and fall, covering his face. She had drawn her weapon and shot the guard as soon as she landed, and the guard went down fast. She helped the techie up and they continued, more carefully, on their mission. The techie didn't bring his hands down until they had made it to that room and even then, he was still clutching his cheeks. Dee Dee coaxed his hands to his sides and gasped.

Holes had been burned into his face like acid drops. Open sores.

She winced when he whimpered, tears sliding down his cheeks out of pain, "It hurts."

"It should," Dee Dee agreed. "But remember our mission!"

"Right, mission comes first," the techie whispered. Even in his pain, he was determined to get the job done. He stumbled towards a dusty corner of the room and lifted something as big as a fly from his pocket. That was the camera? It was tiny! Dee Dee watched with interest as he dabbed something to the back of it from a bottle and pressed it to the corner. It blended in perfectly. "Can you see me, base?"

"We can, operative. What happened to you?" Dee Dee's communicator responded in alarm.

"Fusion spit splattered on me," the boy said, voice wavering.

"Get back as soon as possible. You have three minutes."

Dee Dee rushed him out of the house with no further incident. They were both taken to a hospital immediately, the techie pushed into the ER while Dee Dee sat in the lobby. There wasn't anything wrong with her visually, but the doctors just wanted to make sure.

Dexter was waiting in her hospital room when she was ushered to it. He jumped to his feet. "Dee Dee! What happened?" he cried immediately.

The concern in his voice made her wonder just how worried he had been when he saw the techie's face. Dee Dee smiled, reassuring at him. "I wasn't hit. A fusion guard, a sniper, threw some goop at me, and I jumped out of the way, but it hit the wall and hit the tech dude's face."

Dexter's eyebrows rose. "A sniper?"

"Yeah." Dee Dee sat down on the bed and swung her gangly legs onto it. As she pulled the blanket over her, she continued, "It had really, really good aim and tiny pupils in his eyes."

"A sniper," Dexter repeated. He furrowed his brow. "Well, we'll deal with that later." He turned his attention back to her. "How did it hit the technology operative's face?"

Dee Dee thought. "A few drops splashed back at him. But those drops were really bad." Dexter nodded at her assessment. "Did you see him on the camera?"

"I did."

"Scary, right?"

"Very scary."

Dee Dee was silent. "Was there anything I could have done to help him? You know, if I were a doctor?" She gestured to the hospital when she said "doctor".

Dexter thought this time. "There's probably a cream you could have applied, or some water you could have washed the fusion 'spit' off with," Dexter finally responded with. "But you wouldn't have known that. It isn't your fault he got hurt."

"But there was something I could have done."

"But you didn't know it."

"But I could have done _something_," Dee Dee insisted.

Dexter closed his eyes. "Yes."

And grief swallowed the blonde. She could have helped the techie, had she known what to do. But how would she know what to do? The only way she would know would be to join up in the army as a medical officer, and even then, that wasn't really a possibility with her current job as a stealth soldier.

"Is there any way I _can_ learn how to help people?" Dee Dee asked suddenly, jolting out of her thoughts with inspiration.

Dexter's eyes opened like a cracking whip, staring at her as if she'd gone insane. "Yes, but you are already an infiltrator, and our best at that."

"I know that, Dexter," she replied, talking slowly, as if he were stupid. She knew he hated that, but she risked riling him and continued with her question. "Can't I learn how to be a…"

"Medic," Dexter supplied.

"…medic on a stealth team?" Dee Dee finished.

Dexter was silent, but his eyes spoke for him. He was running this plan through his head. Dee took that as a good sign and continued with her argument. "Since I go alone a lot, what if I get hurt? No one would be there for me. How would I survive?"

"You wouldn't," Dexter answered quietly.

"Exactly." Dee Dee smiled smugly. "So I have to learn how to be a medic. This way I can help others, and it's for my own health. It would be a bad choice for me not to be a medic."

Dexter's lips slowly curled into a smile. "Dee Dee, I agree with you completely. When would you like to start your training?"

Dee Dee's smile changed from smug to triumphant and gleeful. "As soon as possible."

* * *

Three months later, Dee Dee was carrying a battered young man over her shoulders, no doubt in her mind that she could, and would, fix him as soon as they got back to the medical tent.

* * *

All done, ladies and gentlemen!

Jamie Cullum = love. Serious love.

Oh, and DISSSSSCLAAAAAAIMER.


End file.
